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How Bangor-based 101st Air Refueling Wing supports NATO efforts

Bangor's 101st Air Refueling Wing builds tenting platform to house NATO troops during training in Montenegro.

BANGOR, Maine — Open communication and sharing best practices are what sent Bangor’s 101st Air Refueling Wing Civil Engineer Squadron members to Montenegro.

The squad just returned from its first ever joint engineering project with the Montenegrin Armed Forces Engineering Company.

The joint project successfully constructed a tenting platform to house NATO troops during training.

“This provides the opportunity for a multitude of organizations to go over and share best practices with the Montenegrins, and we learn from them just as much as they learn from us.” Daniel Trembley, commander of the 101st Civil Engineering Squadron, said.

The team included 29 squad members from the 101st Air Refueling Wing, comprising six different squadrons from Bangor and Portland. Ten Montenegrin Forces Engineers also aided in the construction of the project.

Squad members said these efforts helped them prepare for any situation in many different countries across the world, and the project specifically helps with joint NATO operations.

“It is really important that we have the opportunity to train overseas with different NATO countries, because in the event that we are called to duty, as most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq and all around the world, we sometimes have the opportunity to work with different countries, and it is really important that we can work well together,” Todd Nadeau, vice commander of the 101st Air Refueling Wing, said.

The National Guard State Partnership Program started the relationship between Maine and Montenegro in 2006. 

The program aims to strengthen the relationship between the United States and partner countries.

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